


Heroine With a Thousand Faces

by kuwdora



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: AU, Female Relationships, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-26
Updated: 2011-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 02:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/156021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuwdora/pseuds/kuwdora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if the Five were all women?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heroine With a Thousand Faces

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the sfaflashfic #3 challenge: AU. Inspired by and dedicated to [](http://abyssinia.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**abyssinia**](http://abyssinia.dreamwidth.org/). What if the Five were all women? Characters culled from history: [Alice Hargreaves](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Liddell), [Annie Besant](http://womenshistory.about.com/od/freethought/a/annie_besant.htm), [Ada Lovelace](http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html) and [Mary Pearcey](http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/book_reviews/non-fiction/cjmorley/144.html). I’ve fudged some of the timeline and tweaked certain elements in order to help keep in the spirit of The Five but hopefully it will be as good-different and unique as much as it replicates certain things. Here is a [photographic reference](http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6260/femmefive.jpg) of the Femme Five.
> 
> Thanks to [](http://mad-maudlin.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**mad_maudlin**](http://mad-maudlin.dreamwidth.org/) for the great beta and to [](http://sheikah.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**sheikah**](http://sheikah.dreamwidth.org/) for the squee and cheerleading.  <3

_Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.” —Annie Besant_

Helen cleared her throat and watched the Prime Minister sip his tea. She never expected or had the desire to make the acquaintance of the Prime Minister and yet here he was, inquiring about her work.

“I can’t see how that might concern the Prime Minister’s office…”

“Well, I’ll think you’ll agree you’re not any physician.”

“Because I’m a woman,” Helen said, trying to keep a civil tongue.

The Prime Minister paused, staring into his cup, searching for his reply as if he were reading the tea leaves. “Well of course in of itself that is… odd. But no, I was thinking more of your work with strange and dangerous creatures. Abnormals I believe you call them. You see, we know all about your father’s sanctuary and you taking up his mantle.”

Helen merely smiled. “Prime Minister, I’m afraid you’ve been misinformed. I really don’t under—”

There was a knock at the door and the Prime Minister held up a finger. “If you’ll excuse me. It will be the others.” He shifted in his seat as the door opened and Helen drew a sharp breath because it became readily apparent the Prime Minister knew more of her activities than he was letting on. Her colleagues—her friends, sisters, and confidants—stood in the hallway, waiting to be allowed in. Four women who mattered the most in Helen’s world. Together they had attended soirees of the season, supported each other in their personal endeavors—the likes of social and scientific matters—and had solidified their trust and friendship by crossing the boundaries of science with vampire blood.

Helen clasped her hands together and stood.

“Alice Hargreaves, invisible woman and muse to the esteemed Lewis Carroll,” the Prime Minister announced. Alice walked into the office and gave the Prime Minister a cursory look.

Alice met Helen’s eyes and the corner of her mouth tightened ever-so-slightly, unimpressed with being called by the Prime Minister’s office. She walked soundlessly across the room, her posture rigid, and took her place beside Helen.

Their friendship originated when Gregory had saved Henry Liddell, Alice’s father, from a vicious attack by an abnormal. At the ensuing dinner the Liddells hosted for Gregory and his daughter, Helen and Alice fell into animated discussion of the world of abnormals and the science behind her father’s work. Alice had been equally inquisitive and pragmatic while having a penchant for superimposing her dry wit on their conversations.

Helen found it refreshing to have a female companion in which to discuss the scientific rigors of her father’s work. They soon discovered that when they poured over data together, their insights and observations yielded interesting conclusions that neither of them would have arrived at by themselves.

When Helen and Alice expressed their wish to attend university, Alice’s father, as the Dean of Christ Church in Oxford, pulled the necessary strings and afforded them the opportunity to study.

The Prime Minister cleared his voice. “Annie Besant, radical.”

Helen met Annie’s eyes. Radical was an adept description. She was a Hindu convert who had been jailed for her politics beliefs and led strikes and rallies that championed women and the lower classes.

When Helen saw Annie speak, her reputation preceded her. Helen had conveyed her appreciation for Annie’s work and Annie had invited her to attend a seminar she was leading at the Theosophical Society. She quickly realized she had much more in common with Annie than she originally believed. The theosophical tenets that Annie believed in encouraged the pursuit of science and philosophy and sought to not to limit knowledge to that of Nature, but to search and explain the inexplicable. Their friendship led to a successful cross-pollination of expertise between her father’s Sanctuary and the Society.

Of the five, Annie’s ability that manifested from the source blood was the subtlest. She had already been an inspired orator and author but in the months after the source blood they had observed Annie’s cognitive abilities had begun to increase exponentially.

Annie paid the Prime Minister no heed as she entered the office but offered Helen a raised eyebrow, more curious than annoyed at being summoned. She stood at Helen’s other side.

“Ah, Countess Ada Lovelace: mathematician, engineer, and vampire,” the Prime Minister said and offered her a generous smile. Ada offered the Prime Minister the proper respects. A close descendant of the poet Lord Byron, she had been a staple presence at Court and traversed the polite circles of society with ease.

Ada stepped forward, face alight amusement. Her diminutive frame, always dressed in the most expensive fashion of the day, was grossly misleading now that her vampire heritage had increased her strength tenfold.

She was an extraordinarily gifted woman whom Helen called upon quite formally with a request for her mathematical skill when Alice and Annie could not work through a series of equations for one of their experiments. They corresponded by letter for many weeks before Helen invited her to dine with the three of them so they could determine whether or not she could be trusted with their work. Ada had charmed them with her humor and surprised them with her deductive skills and the rest was, as they say, history.

“Prime Minister,” Ada greeted, gracefully taking her place behind Annie. Annie turned and smiled warmly at her young sparring partner. Annie and Ada had heated disagreements, spats that used to sap such energy from Ada who whose health had always waxed and waned “like phases of the moon” as Ada herself liked to say. The two of them would put aside their differences for weeks at a time only to return to the points of contention once she had recovered. There was a certain delight in witnessing their intellectual skirmishes, but that had been a thing of the past. The source blood had cured all of her ills and provided Ada with a sense of vitality that she lacked since she was a little girl.

“And Mary Pearcey, menace to society,” the Prime Minister said, though the inevitable _unscrupulous harlot_ was left unsaid. Mary entered the office without a hint of trepidation despite being wanted by the authorities for the most gruesome murders the likes London had never faced. Helen quietly seethed with anger, remorse and guilt.

She was the youngest of the five, initially taken under Helen and her father’s wing many years ago—before the source blood, before she committed murder—and considered kin for all intents and purposes. She’d been unable to, by reason of her lower social standing and sex, obtain the educational opportunities to pursue the scientific and literary fields that she had yearned for until she met Helen. And Annie had accepted Mary and her promiscuous lifestyle without condemnation, forging a mentorship with the woman who had barely been out of her teens.

Helen never intended on allowing Mary to learn so much of their work, but the consensus was that her young mind showed an astonishing amount of promise. Her intellect, combined affable demeanor made a potent combination that they couldn’t resist and they included her in their work. If Helen had known then what she knew now, she would have never allowed Mary to become so involved. She could have saved her and saved herself from a world of grief. Once Helen discovered that Mary was the Ripper, the betrayal shattered the Five’s trust in such a way that none of them would ever be the same.

Ada, Alice and Annie glared at the woman, dispositions clearly unforgiving, while Mary made her way to the back of the office.

The Prime Minister gestured for Helen to sit, ignoring the tension in the room. “So. Down to business. You see, we’ve known about you and your associations for some time. Now we’ve given you your space because we thought the day would come when the five of you might actually prove useful.”

“We have been conditioned to believe women’s usefulness did not extend beyond the hearth and home,” Mary said quite poignantly. “What has changed?”

Momentary irritation flickered across the Prime Minister’s face, his recalcitrance palpable. “Be that as it may, I have an opportunity for you to serve your country.”

Helen looked to Annie whose Irish heritage and advocacy for Irish self-rule was well known amongst those gathered but Annie remained silent, choosing her battles carefully.

“Why are you here exactly?” Helen asked.

“Are you aware of a gentleman named Adam Worth?”

Silence lingered in the room until Helen nodded.

“Adam Worth was a young man who didn’t know how to mind his own business. He intruded upon our company with some frequency a number of years ago,” Alice said on their behalf. It wasn’t hard to remember the times Adam had barged in on their experiments and disrupted their studies in order to offer unnecessary flattery and unwanted suggestions with regards to their work. Part of Helen could not blame him for his schoolboy fascination and admiration of a group women who did not subscribe to social norms but he hindered their work. There were evenings in which Adam Worth had shown up to Annie’s salon, _without invitation_ and abruptly inserted himself into their topical discussions, often stymieing debate.

“Indeed. Regardless of his social graces, his genius mind has become warped by rage and mania and is, I might add, quite a headache for our secret service bureau.”

“Yes, we did know Adam, years ago. But we’ve not seen him since then. What’s he done?” Helen asked.

The Prime Minister looked at her with grave concern. “A service agent tells us Mr. Worth has amassed the funds and technology to enact a great and dangerous crime against this city.”

Helen was taken aback by the accusation. “Which is?”

“A rather deadly toxin has been stolen and a great many Britons may die as a result,” the Prime Minister said, his words hanging ominously.

“I say, doesn’t the government have a means of stopping him?” Mary asked. Helen mentally recoiled from the inquiry, given that she knew how duplicitous it was coming from Mary. Her unfortunate indiscretions of a sexual and homicidal nature were the very thing the authorities could not stop. Mary possessed a dearth of gentle, if not manipulative, charisma and improvisational skills to be envied before the vampire blood. But since the injection she had become a dangerous woman whose rage and jealousy were taken out on many souls. By the time Helen truly recognized how far Mary had slipped from humanity it had been too late. She had paid the highest price when she failed to protect her fiancé from her.

“Well, I’m afraid Mr. Worth’s organization has grown deep roots inside British society and, I’m sorry to say, deep inside my government,” the Prime Minister said.

“Perhaps if you hadn’t emptied your coffers in attempts to crush the Social Democratic Federation you could have funded educational institutions and have an informed citizenry who would not be so easily misled,” Annie said. The Prime Minister gave her a dour look.

“It seems what you need is a group of independent agents,” Helen said.

“With special talents,” Ada preened.

“Who are familiar with his past,” Mary said. Helen was suspicious of exactly how familiar Mary was with Adam, due in part to their common upbringing and sense of humor they had shared. It was quite possible that Mary became intimately involved with Adam at some point, but Helen had little evidence to prove her theory.

“How certain are you of this threat?” Helen asked.

“The stakes could not be higher.”

“This comes from the King himself,” Helen said.

“His majesty’s orders were quite specific.”

“I’m surprised,” Annie said and Helen could hear the smile in her voice.

“If anyone knew that you were asking five women for help—” Alice said.

“People would find it absolutely _obscene_ ,” Ada said, humor sprinkled in her fey-like voice.

“They would be appalled to learn the King has requested five women participate in a government-sponsored killing of someone who had not appeared in court,” Mary said.

“Well, Prime Minister, I believe you can see that we are not assassins,” Helen said. “Not for political gain.”

Alice laughed and the Prime Minister’s jaw tightened, approaching the end of his patience.

“Pity. Undertaking this project would be in your best interests.”

“Best interests?” Ada asked, curiosity and sweetness dripping in her voice.

The Prime Minister rose from his chair, hands folded behind his back. “I wish it didn’t come to this but I must be frank. Some of you are criminals while others…have much to lose. Miss Pearcey here is badly wanted down at Scotland Yard. And Miss Besant, you and your fledgling newspaper have aroused the ire of Donnelly and Swarthson’s while investigating for your next piece of propaganda. It seems that it would be difficult to maintain your publication while you and your staff languish in a jail cell.

“And you, Miss Magnus—”

“Doctor Magnus. And I’ve committed no crimes,” Helen said defiantly, anger surging. The Prime Minister was out of line.

“Not exactly, no, but you do carry on your father’s work in the dark of night. The King could change all that for you.”

“Helen, the Prime Minister is _blackmailing us_ and bribing you,” Mary blurted incredulously and laughed.

“There are tremendous benefits in bringing to an early conclusion this Worth fellow. Benefits for you all. Miss Pearcey, a full pardon for your heinous activities. Countess, I’m sure you would appreciate the opportunity to attend the London Mathematical Society’s conference in the spring to present your latest work. And Mrs. Hargreaves, you must have heard the rumors that your late Mr. Dodgson’s diaries are about to surface. There’s a particular volume, I’m told, that include ruminations about you that no young man should have had for a little girl. No doubt the ensuing scandal would make you wish you had fallen down a rabbit hole. However, with the right assurances its possible that those materials could remain undisclosed,” he surmised with enough of hostility and arrogance that Helen was prepared to call this meeting to an end.

The Prime Minister’s frown softened, but only slightly, when he looked back to Helen.

“And as for your endeavors, Doctor Magnus, full financial and governmental support for your sanctuary. Also unofficial, naturally, but stalwart. I’m sure you can see how your all-important work would flourish under our protective wing.”

“And if Adam doesn’t come quietly?” Mary asked.

The Prime Minister appeared unconcerned. “I leave you to talk about all this amongst yourselves at your leisure. Although the king would appreciate a firm answer by tomorrow morning, please. Thank you for your time. I should convey your respects to the king.”


End file.
